This is where it all begins
by kppancake
Summary: After another mission, Natasha and Clint cannot find the rest of the team, leaving them alone to talk about their partnership, their friendship and the future of their relationship... A fluff Clintasha one-shot about how they became a couple.


**Oh my god I wrote something... hehe...**

**Sorry to anyone who is a follower of mine but things have been crazy busy and I'm working on various writing projects at the moment.**

* * *

**This is where it all begins**

"Clint, where are you?" Natasha asked over her communicator.

"Fire escape, two blocks north-east," Clint replied, scanning the area around her, "How's it going down there?"

"Sorted, for now. Where's everyone else?"

"Last I heard all was clear," Clint said, moving up along the rooftop to try and get a better view, "lost sight of them a while back, they kind of moved the party elsewhere."

"Well then, I guess I'll join you" Tasha ran the next two blocks and moved up the fire escape to get to Clint.

He heard her before he saw her; even with her light step it was hard to be quiet on a rusted old contraption like the fire escape. He thought he saw the familiar flash of red and gold out of the corner of his eye and sure enough, when he glanced through the scope he could see Tony speeding away, Thor following close behind. "I think we might be done here," Clint said over his shoulder, "Tony and Thor seems to be heading back to the tower."

"Right then, what are we waiting for?" She smiled at him and he smiled back. Jumping over rooftops, they made their way back to the Avengers Tower.

"Is it just me or are things getting kind of boring with those guys watching our backs?" he asked with a grin as they moved through the underground garage to the private elevator.

"In a way, it's good to know someone else is there to watch your back." She grinned back at him as the elevator ascended.

"Beats freezing my ass off waiting for marks that don't show," he shrugged, stowing his gear in the small room off the side of the hall and rolling his shoulders. He could use a shower, but that could wait, he wanted to see what the rest of the team had gotten up to after they got separated first.

"I'm going to take a shower and change. Meet you in the other room?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to do a quick pass, see if everyone is back," he said, already half-way out the door, "I'll be in there either way. I'll get changed if they haven't showed."

"No problem." She watched him walk down the hallway. _'He has no idea how I feel...' _she thought to herself as she turned around and headed towards the bathroom.

He scanned the room that had more or less become the unofficial meet-point once they had dealt with whatever horrible event had decided to happen to them that week and saw nobody. Clint sighed, turning around and heading back to his room, determined to get into some clean clothes since for some reason people with the damn ability to fly had somehow taken longer to get back here than he and Natasha had. He knew he shouldn't hold it against them, but the lurking irritation followed him as he stripped off his gear and walked into the hot spray of his shower. He was more annoyed at himself for losing sight of them, but he had been faced with the decision to cover Natasha or track the super-humans... and he would always pick Natasha in that situation.

* * *

Nat dried her auburn hair and changed into her skinny black jeans and red strappy top. Wandering into their meeting point, she only saw Clint, well most of the time she only saw Clint but no one else had arrived. "Just you and me then I guess?"

"Looks like," he sighed, hand rubbing at the back of his head, his still-damp hair flicking down his neck at the action. Clint dug around in the fridge, pulling out a beer and opening it with the hem of his purple hoodie, "you want one?" he asked, adrenaline from the fight still ran through him and the beer would help level him out.

"Yeah thanks." She took one from him and took a swig. She looked over at him noticed him wincing, "Clint, are you ok?"

"Yeah," he sighed, flopping down on the couch in the corner of the room, beer in hand, "Arms a little busted up," he explained, shrugging out of his jumper to show her a rapidly forming bruise that stretched from his wrist up to his elbow, discolouring his forearm, "I need to stop falling off buildings."

"My god, you are an idiot sometimes Barton you know that." She took another look at his wound. "Let me get the first aid kit."

"It'll be fine Tasha," he said, watching her move to get the first aid kit despite his protests, "Just a scratch, really". He finished off most of his beer in the time it took her to come back because, if he was going to have a rare moment of clarity and actually be honest with himself, his arm hurt like a bitch and no matter how quick he drank the beer it wasn't doing much for the pain, "We got anything stronger than beer?" he called out to her, "Anything overpriced and belonging to Tony? Or some decent painkillers?"

"Some in here." She grabbed a glass of water for him and took out two tablets. "Here, take these. We don't want a repeat of Budapest."

"I still say you overreacted," Clint laughed, taking the tablets and washing them down with the last of the beer, waving away the water.

"And I say you're an idiot" She laughed with him. "Feel better?"

"Soon, hopefully," he said, setting the now empty bottle aside and holding out his arm to her, might as well get it over and done with, "And I would have assumed you'd be used to me doing stupid shit by now."

"That is true" She smiled at him and stroked his arm.

"So what's the verdict?" he asked, nodding at his injured arm, self-assured smirk in place, "think I'm going to make it?"

"Unfortunately Barton" she said with a solemn look on her face "you're going to live". She couldn't hold a smile back and let out a laugh

"Told you last time," he laughed, leaning back against the couch but keeping his body angled towards hers, content to leave his arm in her hands, "Can't get rid of me that easy."

"However much I try" She sat up at next to him and leaned on his shoulder.

His arm wrapped around her automatically, the action practiced and comfortable now, a familiar part of the post-mission wind down. "Please," he scoffed, snatching her beer from her and taking a swig before handing it back to her, "Who would you tease if I was gone."

"That's very true. Thanks" she took the bottle back from him. "I wonder where everyone else is"

"No clue," Clint shrugged, "I checked with JARVIS earlier, they are all back, must still be sorting themselves out. I would have expected Steve to be organised and back out here at least. He's usually so eager to tell me where I screwed up."

She let out a little laugh "Well it's nice just to have some peace and quiet." She placed her head on his shoulder and snuggled up to him.

"I'm not complaining," he smiled; glad she couldn't see his probably goofy expression. He loved his part; it was worth falling off every rooftop he climbed if it led to this. He indulged himself, probably because of the combination of alcohol and painkillers in his system, but he really didn't care at this point, and ran his hand up and down her arm as he pulled her slightly closer to him, "This place is always too loud."

"You need to rest anyway if that arm of yours is going to get better."

"Yes ma'am," he replied with amusement, lifting his free arm in a mocking salute. He wished he had another beer, but going to the kitchen meant losing the warmth of Natasha against his side and he wasn't **that** desperate yet, "You're telling me you made it through the whole fight without even a bruise?"

"Well... I have a couple..."

"I knew it! And you don't see me lecturing you about them."

"Because it's not like I have a gaping wound or anything..." She looked down at her leg and Clint immediately knew something was wrong.

"Really Tasha," he sighed with exasperation, sliding off the couch to rest in front of her, eyes fixed on the leg she had glanced at, "C'mon, your turn at show and tell." Tash pulled up her left trouser leg to reveal a gash down her calf. "And you lecture me about Budapest," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling the first aid kit off the couch. He pulled out the antiseptic and the sutures, setting to work fixing the gash on her leg with a practiced ease, "You might want some of those painkillers," he remarked, needle hovering above the cleaned cut.

"Ow, careful Clint." She took the painkillers off of him and took them.

"We've dealt with worse," he shrugged, knowing she was just playing it up, "but you know you should really tell me about this crap. At least mine was superficial. How long were you going to let this sit here?"

"I thought - ow - it was nothing" She was wincing at the pain, she hadn't experienced this type of pain in a long time

"You have a damn hole in your leg," Clint said, taking care with the stitches despite his flippant attitude, making the stitches neat and quick, already mostly done, "I know you heal quick and all, but this is pretty bad."

She hated to admit it, but Clint was right. She had taken a pretty bad beating in their last fight. "I know... you're right" she muttered under her breath.

"Can I get that in writing?" he asked, grinning widely. He hadn't heard her talking, but he'd been looking up at her when she spoke and seen the words anyway. He tied the last stitch and set the needle to the side, it would need to be sterilized before it was put back, "There we go, all done," he said, hand resting on her knee as he pressed gauze to the wound and wrapped it with a bandage.

"I said it; you are not hearing it again. Thank you." She kissed the top of his head and smiled.

"Didn't hear it that time," he grumbled, pushing himself off the floor and detouring via the fridge for more beer, grabbing the rest of the six-pack he had opened earlier and dropping back onto the couch next to her. He handed her a beer and extracted one for himself before putting the remaining beers on the table, kicking his feet up onto it and, feeling bold, wrapping and arm around her and pulling her back to his side.

"Cheers. So now what? We're both fixed and everyone's... well vanished"

"Terrible TV? Food? Sit here and not have to move for a while? I don't mind, but I'm still kinda keyed up," he said shrugging and taking a large mouthful of his beer, the ache in his arm mostly gone now.

"TV and food sounds good. Supernatural or How I Met Your Mother?"

"Supernatural," He said easily, "But can we start at least at season four this time? It's boring without the angel guy. Want me to see what's in the fridge?" he asked.

"Please, by angel guy do you mean Castiel?"

"Probably," Clint said, standing up and going over to the fridge, "Trench coat dude," he elaborated, managing to find half a pizza near the back. It was probably Steve's, but they were hungry and if the rest of the team wasn't going to show up, he was damn well going to eat their food, "Jackpot," he added, bringing the box of cold pizza back to the couch.

"Uh… that's Stark's pizza, I think he was keeping it for him and Pepper when they got back..."

"He's a billionaire," Clint said, rolling his eyes, "He can buy more pizza. We can just say I ate it all," he added with a smile, taking a large bite of one of the slices and voiding her argument, "You deny that it does look good. Tastes better than it looks by the way."

"Alright then, pass me a piece" She leaned over Clint to grab a slice. "This is great"

"Told you," Clint said smugly, leaning back against the couch, working on his own slice of pizza.

"It's actually quite nice just being the two of us."

"Yeah," he said, trying to think about the last time they had been able to do this, just hang out together without anyone else around or a mission to accomplish and finding he couldn't, probably long before the Avengers Initiative even started, "It's been a while."

"Too long" she looked up at him. "Clint, what do you think the nature of our relationship is?"

"Where'd that come from?" he asked, a little dazed. He knew how he felt. But he'd always been hopeless when it came to her. Her, well she'd always been professional, and if they had ended up a little too used to living in each other's personal space he always put that down to the years of being partners. Had he done something to ruin it, he'd been trying not to, he really had, but last time they'd hung out like this he'd had a bit too much to drink, been running on a bit too little sleep and for a moment there he had almost kissed her... and then giant robots had attacked Washington and SHIELD had sent a helicopter for them.

"It's just... Forget it, it's crazy"

"Crazy is what we do," he said with a wry smile, shaking her a little around the shoulders to make her look at him, "We're partners, friends... well, to be honest you're pretty much the most important person in the world to me. But hey, I don't have that many friends," he said, aiming for a joke at the end but not quite managing to bring the conversation out of the serious realm it had strayed to. He took another long pull of his beer, not quite able to meet her eyes as she no doubt processed his odd little outburst.

"For a while now... I've had these...emotions that I thought were wrong but then I realised... how right they were…"

"Huh?" he replied, a little confused, not really what he was expecting and turning his gaze back to her, he always felt better when he could actually see people's faces anyway.

"Oh for God's sake" To prove her point, she put one of her hands on his cheek and kissed him. He hesitated for half a second before deciding to just roll with the odd shift in the mood of the evening and kiss her back. "There..." She was anxious for his reply wondering if she had just ruined their partnership and most importantly, their friendship.

"Okay," Clint said with a wide grin, "I can live with that. You have to know I'm pretty far gone when it comes to you by now."

"So... you feel the same?"

"Yeah," he said, grin softening into a small smile as he lent in to kiss her again, gently pulling her towards him by a hand on the back of her neck.

"Well it sure took you long enough" She smiled, let out a little laugh and kissed him again.

"I was worried about ruining things," Clint said a little annoyed when they broke apart for air, "Might have done something a while ago... but the timing never worked."

"So was I... Now what? I've confessed something that's been on my mind for ages."

"I have no idea," Clint said, honestly unsure, he knew what he /wanted/ to do... but he assumed that his brain wasn't making most of the decisions here.

"We should go and find the others." She stood up but leaned down and kissed Clint. She placed her hand of his cheek while he placed his on her back, forcing her to stay where she was.

He stood up with her, unable to resist pulling her towards him for another kiss once he was actually standing, hands loosely looped around her waist. "Probably," he said once he eventually had to pull away.

"They'll have a surprise when they find out, especially Steve." She smiled and took hold of his hand.

You think he'd be over the 'team relations' speeches by now," Clint sighed, following her out to the corridor, "Although the crush he has on you is a little bit adorable. Almost a shame to let him down like that."

"I can go and find him and kiss him instead if you like" She said to tease him.

"I'd imagine he'd be kinda boring," Clint teased back, "But if you really want to go ahead," he laughed, curling an arm around her waist as they walked.

"I don't know; a super soldier is tempting." He pulled Natasha in further towards his body and kissed her once more to prove he was better than Steve. "On second thoughts, this is much more interesting with an archer." They smiled at each other as they walked in the next room where they found everyone else.

"What's with the hiding in here?" Clint asked, faking a hurt tone, "Don't you love us anymore?" he asked, laying it on thick as he walked them over to the empty space on the couch, not bothering to drop his arm.

"Well we were all in here waiting and... wait" Steve said and stopped as he spotted Clint's arm around Natasha's waist. "Are you two... together?"

Natasha nodded and smiled "Yeah, it just kinda happened."

"Kinda, yeah," Clint said at the same time as Natasha, doing his best not to laugh at Steve's expression, "And save us 'the talk' Cap, this won't do shit to team dynamics."

"It might," Tony smirked from the armchair by the window, glass of scotch in hand, but he clearly meant nothing by it as e shot them both very obviously-subtle thumbs up.

"Congratulations my friends, I am truly happy for you." Thor came over and clapped Clint on the shoulder and smiled at Natasha. "All I need now is Jane and everything will be perfect."

"Easy there Sparky," Clint said, feeling the bones in his knees grind together as they absorbed the impact, "I'd like to actually make it to tomorrow."

"About time," Bruce offered from his perch on the edge of the couch, his softly spoken words offset by a comfortable smile.

"You knew?" Natasha asked.

"I had a suspicion," Bruce shrugged, prompting a laugh from Tony and another wide grin from Thor that made Clint cringe in anticipation of another pat.

Clint dropped down to the couch, pulling Natasha with him as everyone saw fit to comment on their new relationship, if it could really be called new...

"Well Barton, you certainly don't waste time I'll give you that" She smiled which then set Tony's laughing off again.

"There's nowhere else to sit," Clint said, rolling his eyes and ignoring the laughter.

"I'm not complaining."

"I'd hope not," he replied, settling his hands around her waist and relaxing back into the couch.

She smiled back at him. "So what have you been doing while we've been in the other room?"

"Talking," Bruce said with a shrug.

"Getting chewed out by Rogers... and not in a good way," Tony complained with a smirk in Steve's direction to make the other man uncomfortable.  
Clint offered Tony a sympathetic look; between the two of them it was a small miracle Steve didn't have an ulcer.

"Poor thing..." Suddenly her communication device went off. "Fury can't leave us alone for one day!"

"Really?" Clint sighed, he's taken his out before he'd jumped in the shower since it interfered with his hearing aid implant, "What does he want?"

"Agent Romanoff... Now? It's kind of a bad time Director... Yes sir, right away sir."

Clint lent around her, eyebrow raised as he watched the interaction. Clearly the rest of the team weren't getting the same messages, so whatever it was it was a private matter for her.

"He wants myself, Steve, Thor and Clint in to train rookies and Bruce and Tony in for some research they want doing"

"So we don't get a say as usual," Clint grumbled, just as Tony laughed and drained his glass.

"When does he want us there?" Bruce asked, rolling his eyes at Tony.

"Not a clue, Fury said he'd tell you when we get there. He also said we had to make our own way there."

"Can it be not now?" Clint asked with a whine, "I really want it to be not now."

"And why not?" Nat asked leaning closer towards him.

"Because I'm so happy and comfortable here. Going to the helicarrier would require leaving your arms…"

Steve coughed to break the awkward silence between the rest of the Avengers, "Maybe we could tell Fury that you were both injured and need to rest before returning to duties."

"You would do that Steve?" Natasha asked; it was highly unlike Steve to go against direct orders, being a solider and all.

"Yeah, I mean, you actually **were** injured, right Tash?"

"Oh yeah… and Clint… Clint needs to rest his arm" She laughed nervously "Right Barton?"

"Yep, oh definitely it's quite painful" He replied with a slight sarcastic tone.

"Okay then, I guess we'd better leave you two to it then." Steve said, smiled at Natasha and led the rest of the Avengers out of the room to get ready. Clint and Natasha could hear Tony saying to Steve about why he would do it for them, but not for when he wanted to spend time with Pepper.

"You know Steve did that because he likes you" Clint said, giving Natasha a smile.

"He did it because we are a 'new' relationship, if you could call it 'new' and because he is a nice guy." She replied.

"So, what now?"

"I've got some ideas…" And sealed their deal with a kiss.

* * *

**So... what did you think? Please R&R as this is my first Avengers fic and I would love some feedback**

**~kppancake x**


End file.
